CARTUCHO GROUP SIGNS WITH ……….

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Cartucho Group Limited – Cartucho signs agreement with NIS to support US deployments
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM April  2006- Cartucho Group Limited, a growing developer and manufacturer of ink refill kiosks, is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with National In-Store (NIS) to support the deployments of the Group’s ink refill kiosks in the United States and Canada. Under the agreement NIS will provide nationwide training, installation and ongoing customer services to operators of Cartucho’s ink refill kiosks. Service and support calls will be handled by the NIS call centre in Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A. Inventory management and distribution of consumables and of spare parts will also be handled by NIS’s ISO certified fulfilment facility in Sarasota.
NIS is a leading retail resources provider that serves the largest and well recognised consumer product companies and retailers in the United States. NIS is the fastest-growing U.S. retail resources provider, serving more than three million retail sites annually with more than 10,000 field associates. NIS offers a wide range of merchandising, sales training, ISO certified fulfilment, quality assurance and technical services. Headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, NIS maintains offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific and is part of Omnicom Group, Inc.’s Radiate Retail Group.
The Company is also pleased to report that it continues on course with its stated objectives at the time of flotation. At Admission, Cartucho had deployed 49 kiosks in the United States with a contract to rollout a further 914 kiosks. Performance of the installed machines has been encouraging. As planned, since flotation, the Company has been concentrating on its volume manufacturing in order to fulfil the rollout. The preparations for volume manufacturing are well progressed, with the next tranche of 83 machines under the roll-out expected to be installed by end of April 2006 and the roll-out expected, as planned, to continue through third calendar quarter 2006
The Company continues to pursue negotiations with additional retailers, both in the US and other jurisdictions and is pleased with progress on this front.
Commenting on the agreement with NIS, Mike Willcocks, Chief Executive of Cartucho Group, said, “This agreement with NIS is fundamental in supporting our ambitions in the Untied States and will ensure that we are able to provide our customers with high levels of training and after sales services.
“We are pleased with the progress that has been made regarding the roll-out of our kiosks in the United States. Since flotation, the establishment of volume manufacturing of our kiosks has been a priority and we are progressing towards reaching our deployment target of 50 machines per week.”
About Cartucho Group Limited
Cartucho is the holding company for a growing applied technology business specialising in the design, sale and support of a system which refills printer ink cartridges. With over 1.3 billion inkjet printer cartridges forecast* to be sold this year, the founding shareholders recognised the opportunities that exist for a system capable of refilling spent cartridges. The Group designs and produces its ink refill kiosk (the “kiosk”), which is capable of refilling a significant majority of popular inkjet printer cartridges on the market. The Group’s principal objective is to enter into revenue sharing agreements with major retail chains which sell cartridges, with the kiosk providing an in-store cartridge refilling solution. The Directors believe that the growing number of smaller walk-in shops specialising in cartridge refilling has taken some market share away from the larger office supplies retailers and that the kiosk offers a means of partially reversing this trend. In September 2005, the Group signed an agreement to supply the kiosk to OfficeMax, which, with nearly 1000 stores, is the third largest office supplies retail chain in the United States.

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April 14, 2006 at 11:18 AM